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Mrs. Rosenberg studied three cases of rather severe neurotic episodes—one after an air attack, two after Dunkirk—in soldiers with previous good mental health. In all three cases it transpired that in spite of the healthy pre-morbid personality, the precipitating traumata had mobilized old unconscious conflicts. The nature of these conflicts was very different in these three cases. In the first case a severe Oedipus conflict was reactivated. The second 'had reacted with guilt and anxiety after the release of formerly repressed aggressive and sadistic impulses'; the third 'presented depressive symptoms following experiences which appear to have approximated to a repetition of some primal traumatic situation'.
These observations are used to discuss some theoretical questions. The author stresses (1) that there is no cause to believe that war neurotics are 'weaklings trying to evade duty and return home'; (2) that the diagnosis 'anxiety state' is of no dynamic value whatsoever, since anxiety may occur in neuroses of very different psychological structure; (3) that the release of aggressive impulses in war may be responded to by the reactivation of various conflicts and pathological reactions; (4) that depressions in the clinical picture of war neuroses are due to the internalization of aggressive impulses.